Level Up Your Life Through Listening - Week #32 of The Awakening Journey
In this week’s article, we are going to talk about listening. To yourself, to others, and most importantly, to nature and how this critical tool will transform the way you interact with the world.
Many of us get stuck in our heads thinking about or reacting to what others are saying. The result is we aren’t present and we definitely aren’t hearing the other person.
Here, you’ll learn about the levels of listening and how to use listening as a tool to create a greater connection with others, yourself, and nature & life.
How this will change your life!
When you change how you listen to yourself, to others, and to nature, you have access to deeper wisdom.
The door to clarity and abundance opens and you feel the pieces and parts of yourself and the world coming back to whole.
“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk."
— Doug Larson
The Levels of Listening
There are four levels of Listening.
Level 1 - Egoic Listening: Your thoughts, your feelings, what you might say next, or even your grocery list. You are not hearing the other person.
Level 2 - Active Listening: You are focused intently on what the other person is saying. Your attention is in the now, without distraction.
Level 3 - Awakened Listening: This level has focus on the other person through a wider lens. You pick up on their body language, pauses, hesitations, tone, and inflections in their voice.
Level 4 - Conscious Listening: You are able to hear things that aren’t being said. You are holding a screen of awareness on everything else going on in the environment. You are in a deep state of connection to all of life. Your awareness fills every corner of every room and you are dialed into the collective consciousness.
Download the graphic here.
How do I do it?
By practicing leading from behind. One of my favorite listening tools is leading from behind* and from the field**. This is from week 25 of The Awakening Journey where we discussed 5 ways to lead.
*Leading from behind is listening at a deep level and getting curious. Asking questions. Listening and not attaching to what the person is saying or what comes up in you.
**Leading from the Field - Using your antenna and absorbing data in the environment.
My story
Practically speaking, for years, I would imagine putting my ego in a box before conversations especially coaching conversations.
Then I would sit still and just imagine my heart being open.
Next, I would ask a question in my head, what is not being said, what is really going on, what is needed here?
This constant focus on level 3 dropped me into what I like to call level 4.
The Fourth Level
My secret: There is a fourth level that I discovered a number of years ago that is I also like to call conscious listening.
It requires patience and practice and it is freaking amazing. It literally feels like magic. You are able to hear things that aren’t being said. It’s like you can dial into a station on the radio that you didn’t know existed or if you did, it was completely static, yet, now it is clear as a bell.
This level is even more connected to the person while also holding a screen of awareness on everything else going on in the environment. The temperature of the room, the energy, and what is happening in the room at this moment. And wants to happen in the next moment.
This is deeper than intuition - it is being a part of “the field” of awareness, becoming one with it.
As a result, you have access to whatever is in the field that you desire. Whether that is the outcome in conversations or creating a relationship you want, it is yours to have.
This Week’s Challenge
Put your ego aside before conversations: Choose an object to hold your ego. (Mine is a wooden box with a tree of life on it.) Close your eyes and literally imagine that you are taking your ego out of your body and lovingly placing it in the object. Say “don’t worry, you’ll be out soon enough”.
Without any resistance, shut the lid and exhale.
Practice step 1 before and during conversations.
Notice how the quality of your conversations shifts.
Repeat this exercise if and when your ego sneaks out during conversations until it won’t. Eventually, you will learn how to do this in everyday interactions and be able to live in harmony with your ego.
Next, we will talk about Your Inner Critic, in the meanwhile remember the present moment is where your best life happens.
With love, presence and gratitude,
Darla